How to be a Game Warden in 6 Easy Months - Texas Parks and Wildlife [Official]

Welcome to the first day of P.T.
Enough loafing. Let's run!
Let's go, go, go, go, go!
Coming in with 34 other strangers, it's just, I mean, overwhelming.
Come on, Caraway. Push it, push it, push it, push it!
Whoever just groaned is gonna love this.
One. Two. Three. Good job!
First I was a little skeptical when I first came.
I figured 6 months in tight quarters…
How's the day been so far?
[grunts] Great! Awesome.
- Who wants to be here? [cadets] I do!
- I can't hear you! - I DO!
I think we just had a volunteer to go in the trailer to get the next one.
If you pull up and that alligator comes to your truck,
he's hungry. You know he says, hey, food.
Anybody feel comfortable with taping one?
[cadet 1] I'll tape one. [cadet 2] I'll tape it.
When you get him on that catch pole, let him tie himself down…
[tape rips]
…pull his legs back, and you can tape him just like that,
and he's disabled.
[male cadet] Catch him. [femle cadet] Go ahead.
- You want me to do the pole? - Yeah!
There you go!
To go up to an animal like that, they're right about the respect part.
'Cause when the head is about as long as your thigh
from your thigh to your foot, you got issues.
Careful.
Pull him up there next to your side where you got his tail...
It's going to be part of our job everyday.
We're going to get calls all the time.
We need to know what we're doing when we go out there.
And we need to be able to do it in a controlled situation like this.
We're the experts on how to handle it
so we need to look that way
Pick up your ammo and drop it off at the fifteen.
First time I shot a pistol was when I came to the Academy.
Don't forget the mechanics. Don't forget to line the sites up.
Shooters ready!
Fire!
[gunshots]
[shells hit concrete] [more gunfire]
Cease fire! Cease fire!
Take a look at your targets.
Then put up fresh targets and let's get ready for the next relay.
It was kind of a shock to shoot a pistol.
And I shot very, very poorly.
Use both hands with your reaction hand...
Lt. Howard has been working with us, and…
Shooters ready!
…we're getting a lot better.
Fire!
[gunshots]
I started thinking about being a game warden about 4 years ago.
It was either this or law school.
I went to college at Texas A&M Galveston.
Glad I made the decision. I'm happy.
[engine revs]
Oh!
I wanna see you pick it up but you have to do it at a slower pace
before you can go faster.
Smooth and control, smooth and control.
Tactical driving? I had problems with it.
I was taking over cones and everything.
I did it a bunch of times.
I don't think Lt. Teeler was too happy with me.
Get used to the course and then increase the speed.
They just made me do it over and over until I got it right.
Good job! [music]
[gunshots]
Push up, go, go, go!
[music]
[dawn]
[alarm rings]
[whistle] Get up!
- Missing boots? - I got them downstairs.
Class! Ten-hut!
Present! - Hup!
Order! -Hup!
[flag pole clinks]
Fall out.
51! Get it done!
Have a seat.
Any time when you are involved with an animal
that is taken illegally and…
Some people coming here and they're not avid hunters and fishermen.
You have to know whether it's a typical point
or a nontypical point.
They don't know the first thing about rules and regulations.
Circumference is taken below the G2.
Other people in the class. If they don't hunt or fish, they struggled.
So this right here represents the H1 and the H2…
They struggled a lot.
[rushing water]
The first exercise I want all of you to do
is experience what it feels like to be trapped on a strainer.
Let's go! Swim hard. Swim hard!
There you go! Right over the top. [cheers]
Good job.
Come on, come on! Get over! Come on!
Whoa!
That's alright. Good try. Good job.
Okay, go.
Strainers are going to be low water crossings, bobbed wire fences.
If you go under, you're gonna drown.
Come on! If you go under, you're dead. You gotta go over.
Both hands! Push up, push up! Come on!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
The first time I went through it, I was coughing up water.
When I got back up that second time, like, man,
I don't want to do that again.
[instructor] Oh, yeah. Make it look easy! Golly!
But throughout the day, we did that so many times…
you got used to it.
Good job! Way to go! [applause]
What we're doing is rescuing an active drowner over there.
An active drowner has a lot of adrenaline on board.
They'll climb. They'll claw. They'll hurt you.
Help! Somebody help! [splash]
Before I got to the Academy, I really never swam at all.
No, no. Reach underneath and rotate out.
Come on, come on, come on.
In about 3 weeks, I had to learn how to at least swim 100 yards.
[instructor] Wrong technique.
I didn't know if I was going to make that.
I did everything just to survive in the water.
- Pretty good? - Yeah, real good.
But I got through it.
They're doing good, you bet. They'll be ready.
It went better than I planned.
I'm going to stay at it, though. I still have to practice.
[sound of boxes opening]
...summer short sleeved shirts... Pretty nifty.
It's the last night I'm in the Academy and I'm ready to go.
My car's already packed up.
The experience I wouldn't trade it for anything.
And I feel pretty confident in my abilities
because of the training we got here.
[laughs] It's over.
[music]
This morning when you awoke, you were a student, a cadet.
When you walk out of the State Capitol today, you will be a leader.
[music]
As you await this moment of graduation,
it is crucial that you understand that your learning has just begun.
I see myself retiring as a Game Warden.
This is my career now.
[music]